My Little Monster, Vol. 1

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By Robico. Released in Japan by Kodansha, serialized in the magazine Dessert. Released in North America by Kodansha Comics.

(This review is based on an advance copy provided by the publisher.)

After an extended period where it seemed that only Nakayoshi titles could get licensed in North America, Kodansha Comics is slowly edging its way back into the more mature shoujo market, starting with this title from the older teen magazine Dessert. (Brief nerd aside: Dessert arose from the ashes of Shoujo Friend, Kodansha’s main ‘older teen’ magazine, which also spawned ‘Bessatsu Shoujo Friend’, aka Betsufure, home of The Wallflower et al. In case you wondered where the Fure came from.) As you can see by the cover, our two lead characters are just absolutely delighted with life and each other, and this is their sweet, fluffy love-love comedy.

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Oooooookay, maybe that’s not quite accurate after all. Haru, the male lead, is the monster of the title, a freakishly strong, freakishly weird loner who doesn’t have any real friends, mostly as his reactions to any social situation are so far off the map from any reasonable human interaction he drives everyone away. As for Shizuku, she just wants to get perfect grades so that she can grow up to be rich, and has absolutely no time for nonsense or friendship. Which is a shame as she’s starring in a shoujo manga, so you know that she’s going to be dragged into shenanigans, if unwillingly.

I want to note that, though he’s nowhere near WataMote levels of social maladjustment (this is still a normal shoujo manga), Haru can be very hard to take for the average reader. I could have done without his forcefully dragging Shizuku into an alley at one point, and later forcefully kissing her without her consent. It stems from his ignorance of the basic norms of society, but that doesn’t make it any easier to see. We’ve also just barely begun the series, so there’s no real explanation as to why he’s like this beyond “well, he’s wacky like that”. I hope as the series goes on he gains some depth, as he seems a bit like a Manic Pixie Dream Boy at the moment.

I was far more interested in Shizuku. As the volume goes on and you see the way she interacts with people, you begin to notice that she’s not really the normal, slightly snarky girl she initially comes across as. Indeed, for all that Haru goes on about the need to have friends, Shizuku is equally solitary, and has closed herself off from emotions so much that she has difficulty dealing with then when they need to emerge… which can result in sudden explosions, such as when she realizes Haru is the #1 student in the school (if only he weren’t suspended at the start of the year). I suspect as this title goes on we’ll find she needs this interaction even more than Haru does.

We also get a couple of other characters set up to be regulars… Natsume is the slightly overwrought, ditzy type who contrasts well with Shizuku, and Sasayan is a sports-oriented boy who knew Haru from his previous school and I suspect will turn out to have a dark past or somesuch. This manga doesn’t really break any new shoujo ground. But it’s put together well, the characters are intriguing, and it can be funny (if a bit unnerving) much of the time. It’s 12 volumes total, so we’ll see how long it can keep this up. Definitely a solid first volume, though.

Attack on Titan: Junior High, Vol. 1

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By Saki Nakagawa. Released in Japan in two separate volumes by Kodansha, serialization ongoing in the magazine Bessatsu Shonen Magazine. Released in North America by Kodansha Comics.

(This review is based on a copy provided by the publisher.)

Attack on Titan has been such a breakout success both here and in Japan that spinoffs were inevitable, and indeed there are now at least four distinct spinoffs, all available (or coming soon) in English. Two of these are dramatic prequels covering life before the fall of the Wall and Levi’s past. One, out via the online Mangabox site, is a straight-up 4-koma gag comic. I had assumed that Junior High would also be that sort of title, but no, it’s got actual plot and sequential art. It is, however, aimed squarely at comedy, and some of the comedy is very funny indeed.

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If you’ve ever read one of the several thousand High School AU fics on Fanfiction.Net, you know where this series is going. Eren and company all go to a junior high that’s quite unusual… it’s divided into human and titan sections. This appalls Eren, who has a hideous grudge against the titans for destroying his life five years earlier. (This being a gag manga, how his life is destroyed will be a punchline.) With the help of his exasperated yet overprotective childhood friend Mikasa, nerdy shut-in Armin, walking appetite Sasha, and “rival” Jean, will he be able to get through school life without making a fool of himself?

Of course not. Seeing Eren make a fool of himself is part of the point of this series. In fact, no one in the entire cast is spared ritual humiliation. Everyone’s personality traits are exaggerated and deconstructed. Eren’s constant anger is combined with a sort of shonen hero effect. Mikasa is still sort of crushing on Eren, but thankfully this isn’t made too explicit. Annie is definitely crushing on Eren, but seeing her interaction with Mikasa is funnier. Sasha is sadly two-dimensional, but at least it’s a funny dimension (her family’s poverty makes for some of the best side-comments). Some cast get very little screen time (Bertolt, Ymir), but this is likely due to this running at the same time as the main series was, so they hadn’t had their big reveals yet.

Indeed, this spinoff actually gives some folks a bit more development than the regular series. Hitch, Annie’s snarky co-worker in the Military Police, is here a snarky princess type, working with Annie on the Student Council, and her personality works well with everyone, but especially Jean. Levi’s squad are back from the dead as 2nd year students, and each get some of the amusing quirks we saw in the original. Nothing here is really deep or meaningful, but I’d hardly expect that from a manga of this sort. If you take Attack on Titan very seriously, you likely rejected this when you heard the title.

Lastly, I want to mention the translation. For some odd reason, this title has not been scanlated online like all the other Titan titles. This proved to be a godsend to translator William Flanagan, who is thus allowed to adapt loosely in order to make things even funnier without fear of fans pointing at an over-literal translation online and crying foul. So expect some Western Culture references mixed in. Best of all, the subject of Hange’s gender is made into a running gag (which I imagine must be Western-only, as in Japan it’s much easier to be gender-ambiguous) which mocks everyone who takes offense to Hange being anything other than ‘uncertain’. Not since Excel Saga have I read a book where it looks like the translator is having as much fun as the reader.

Don’t expect more than a light-hearted comedy AU here. But it’s very good comedy, with lots of quotable bits. In fact, let me leave with one of my favorite lines, from Mikasa as she tries to get hikkikomori Armin to come to school for the athletic festival:

“It’s true that you’re clumsy, talentless, and constantly weirding everyone out. And we know that in the match you’ll just flail around like a terrified toddler fleeing a birthday clown. You don’t have to worry about that. Everyone’s ready to accept you as the freak show weakling that you are.”

The Disappearance of Nagato Yuki-chan, Vol. 5

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By Nagaru Tanigawa and Puyo. Released in Japan as “Nagato Yuki-chan no Shoushitsu” by Kadokawa Shoten, serialization ongoing in the magazine Young Ace. Released in North America by Yen Press.

So when does one choose to end a cash cow? Particularly if the cash cow is a spinoff of an even bigger cash cow whose author seems to have dwindled down to 2 books a decade? Well, the answer is that you don’t – you need to keep the audience interested in these characters for as long as you possibly can, and if the main Suzumiya Haruhi series is on hiatus while its author deals with trying to wrap yup the monster he’s created, and the manga has to end as it can’t make up new Main Storyline stuff – well then, you keep the spinoffs going for as long as they are able.

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(For the record, I have generally assumed that when dealing with spinoff titles like these, the main plot is being created by the artist, with the writer only signing off on suggestions and censoring plots he wants to handle himself. Thus I assume that Puyo is in charge of both this and the Haruhi-chan manga, but I could be wrong.)

This volume really reads like the author was intending to wrap it up here. Yuki and her AU counterpart have a talk in her mind, after which she’s back to normal with no memories of what happened before… which is a bit of a pain to Kyon and Ryouko. Luckily it’s summer vacation and Haruhi returns to drag everyone through a series of fun activities. You can see Puyo starting to wrap things up. Haruhi reveals how things changed for her 3 years prior, and shows how she developed in a different, slightly more sedate direction due to Kyon’s unthinking response. There’s a sense she’;s moving on from him here. Likewise, Kyon manages to resolve the awkwardness he feels around Nagato, and we finally get to the big confession…

…except there are fireworks, so she doesn’t hear him. And he immediately pulls back, noting that it’s OK if he said it, and now they can go back to their happy carefree days. We then move on to a slight homework arc, and return to the school for the 2nd half of the year, which features Haruhi trying to figure out how to inveigle herself into the culture festival despite not going to that school, and the return of a very familiar face.

Yes, if you write a spinoff featuring the most popular Haruhi character in a starring role, it makes sense to bring in the big breakout character of the last few years as well. So Sasaki’s back. What will her return mean for the relationship between Yuki and Kyon? Probably not a lot, to be honest. But it will at least keep it dragged out for another couple of volumes, which is all Kadokawa asks, really.

I really do enjoy this title. I wish the art rose above mediocre, but given the popularity of Attack on Titan, mediocre art is not a big setback anymore. Puyo specializes in quiet, introspective emotional moments, and the humor here is gentle and mild – it’s probably to contrast with the Haruhi-chan 4-koma he also writes. But I simply can never get out of my head the fact that this is a cash grab for a large anime franchise, and the addition of Sasaki and pullback from an obvious ending do nothing to assuage my worries in that regard. As always, recommended for Haruhi fans.